MICROMECHANICAL MODELING OF THE ELASTOPLASTIC BEHAVIOR OF POLYCRYSTALS CONTAINING PRECIPITATES - APPLICATION TO HYPO-EUTECTOID AND HYPER-EUTECTOID STEELS

This study, based on micro-macro transitions, deals with the modelling of elastoplastic behavior of metallic polycrystals containing intracr ystalline non-shearable precipitates. At first, we recall the usual el astoplastic description of pure single crystals based on crystallograp hic gliding on slip systems. For single crystals containing precipitat es, a new hardening matrix is developed based on the Orowan mechanism, taking into account the dislocation-dislocation and dislocation-preci pitate interactions. Applications to hypo- and hyper-eutectoid polycry stalline steels containing spherical isotropic cementite particles are presented. A good agreement with experimental results is observed for the overall behavior and the residual stresses after a given amount o f plastic strain. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.